Battle of the Java Sea
The Battle of the Java Sea (Indonesian: Pertempuran Laut Jawa, Japanese: スラバヤ沖海戦, romanized: Surabaya oki kaisen, lit. 'Surabaya open-sea battle') was a decisive[2] naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II.
Allied navies suffered a disastrous defeat at the hand of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 27 February 1942 and in secondary actions over successive days. The American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM) Strike Force commander— Dutch Rear Admiral Karel Doorman—was killed. The aftermath of the battle included several smaller actions around Java, including the smaller but also significant Battle of Sunda Strait. These defeats led to Japanese occupation of the entire Dutch East Indies.
Background[edit]
The Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies progressed at a rapid pace as they advanced from their Palau Islands colony and captured bases in Sarawak and the southern Philippines.[1] They seized bases in eastern Borneo[1] and in northern Celebes[1] while troop convoys, screened by destroyers and cruisers with air support provided by swarms of fighters operating from captured bases, steamed southward through the Makassar Strait and into the Molucca Sea. To oppose these invading forces was a small force, consisting of Dutch, American, British and Australian warships—many of them of World War I vintage—initially under the command of American Admiral Thomas C. Hart.[1]
On 23 January 1942 a force of four American destroyers attacked a Japanese invasion convoy in Makassar Strait as it approached Balikpapan in Borneo.[3] On 13 February the Japanese captured the major port of Palembang in eastern Sumatra.[1] On the night of 19/20 February, an Allied force attacked the Japanese eastern invasion force off Bali in the Battle of Badung Strait.[1] Also on 19 February, the Japanese made two air raids on Darwin, on the Australian mainland, one from carrier-based planes and the other by land-based planes.[4] The destruction of Darwin rendered it useless as a supply and naval base to support operations in the East Indies.
Wrecks[edit]
As of 2002 the location of the wreck of only one of the eight ships sunk during the two so-called Java Sea Battles, HMS Jupiter, was known and plotted on an Admiralty chart. However, given her location in very shallow water so close to shore she had already been heavily salvaged.[6]
In December 2002 the wrecks of HNLMS Java and HNLMS De Ruyter were discovered by a specialist wreck diving group aboard the dive vessel MV Empress. Empress then went on to discover the wrecks of HMS Electra in August 2003; HNLMS Kortenaer in August 2004; and HMS Exeter and HMS Encounter in February 2007. When discovered these wrecks were all in a very well-preserved state, save for battle damage.[7] In late 2008, Empress discovered remnants of the last wreck, USS Pope, which had already been largely removed by illegal salvage diving operations.[8]
Although the MV Empress team kept the locations of their discoveries secret, by 2017 all eight ships had been reduced to remnants or even entirely removed by illegal commercial salvage operations.[9][10]'[11][12]